Whirlwind / Def Leppard
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Whirlwind's engineering department and Custom Shop were called on
to design a new drum triggering interface for Rick Allen of
rock supergroup Def Leppard.
Whirlwind's Jim Kelsey and J-P Cirre along with Def Leppard's drum tech Jerry Johnson, designed and built two of these systems purchased by Def Leppard through: Pro Media - El Sobrante CA. |
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Drum trigger signals are input to this main panel (right) via the W6
multipin connector, custom stage box and mult-to-mult cable.
This main panel contains the circuitry for silently switching
these signals to either the "A" or "B" fanouts, color coded in yellow
and green Snakeskin®.
These fanouts are sent to two completely separate "brain" units set up for different sounds. The front switch can then be used to change between drum "scenes". The unused outputs are shorted to ensure silence and extra shielding is employed throughout. |
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DIs - Input Side 
DIs - Output Side |
Both outputs from the drum generators are fed into this custom 10 channel DI and then out to the main snake. These inputs are isolated from each other so that both sets are always active and no additional switching is necessary. This way, the two sets of drum signals are always arriving at the FOH console on the same group of channels and at identical levels. |
Def Leppard drum tech Jerry Johnson with his new gear. |
Sound checking the system for the first time at a Def Leppard concert at Six Flags Darien Lake. Jerry and J-P were still installing the system as the bus backed in for sound check. (1/2 hour early, no pressure!) Soundcheck went off without a single glitch, hum or buzz and a good time was had by all. |
| Thanks to Rick Allen, Jerry Johnson and all of the folks involved with Def Leppard for allowing us to document this project! |